


New At This

by Singerdiva01



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 16:11:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5011195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Singerdiva01/pseuds/Singerdiva01
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from Six Degrees of Separation. Laura and Billy discuss her collapse, boundaries, and their budding friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New At This

Billy didn’t know how long he’d been sitting and staring out the viewport at Galactica. Long enough for Colonial One’s environmental controls to dim the lights to nighttime levels and the rest of the president’s staff to pack up and head to bed. Long enough for him to work himself through anger to regret to anxiety and then all the way back to anger, though this time at himself. 

Nowhere near long enough to have figured how to make up for what he’d done or if he even could. 

“Looks like you’ve had a rough day.”

Billy started when the sound of the president’s throaty voice broke through the familiar hum of the engines. When his eyes focused he could see her reflected in the reinforced glass, standing a few feet behind him with two steaming mugs in her hands. 

He watched her approach until the shiny blue silk of her robe was all he could see in the pane and he could feel her hovering next to his shoulder. When she held out one of the mugs he took it without looking up. 

She made one of her humming noises and shifted the few steps to the chair across from his. When he dared a glance up, he saw her sipping her tea and staring at his window. It took him a moment to realize she was seeing his reflection and studying it carefully.

“Want to tell me about it?”

He huffed then tried to camouflage the sound by blowing in his tea. When the president showed no signs of breaking the silence, he sighed and shook his head wearily.

“It was the worst. I made a big mistake at work. Like, made a really bad day for my boss ten times worse. Then we got into an argument. A bad one.”

Roslin hummed again and he heard her shift in her chair. 

“Maybe you had a right to be mad. Maybe you asked a valid question and she threw it back in your face.”

_”What the hell were you thinking? You could have killed yourself. Is that what you were trying to do?_

_“I’m the president, Billy. I don’t have to explain myself to anyone, not even you.”_

“Well, she’s under a lot of stress. The weight of the world on her shoulders. Literally,” he said with a harsh laugh. “I was being selfish. And presumptuous. Can’t forget presumptuous.”

_”Right. Not even to me. Did you think for a single second today how scared I was when I found you passed out like that? Do you ever think how your sudden zeal for dying makes me feel?”_

“I don’t think admitting you care for someone is presumptuous, Billy. It’s certainly not as bad as telling someone you don’t care about them, especially when you really, really do.”

_“No, Billy. Frankly I don’t. I’m the one dying, you might wanna remember that, and I don’t have the energy to worry about hurting your feelings. You can deal with it and help me do the job or you can leave.”_

Billy chanced a look over at his boss and felt the weight on his chest lift when he saw her smiling apologetically, an almost playful plea for forgiveness dancing in her tired eyes. 

“Yeah, well, then I told my boss to frak off,” he pushed on with a sigh. When the president’s smile widened, he continued in a pained voice. “She can be pretty terrifying. She’ll probably toss me out the airlock or something.”

The president gasped then giggled and Billy found himself having to shift his mug so he could take her outstretched hand. 

“If anyone deserves the airlock today, it’s Cottle.” Billy looked up at her quizzically and she unlaced their fingers to wave her hand dismissively. “Never mind. The point is, it’s completely inappropriate to tell your boss to frak off.”

Billy tensed and looked down at the floor again. He would have missed the president’s gentle smile had she not touched his knee pointedly, urging him to look back up. 

“But but being scared for a friend who did something incredibly stupid without thinking about the consequences and telling her how it made you feel isn’t at all.” She paused and looked out into space for a long moment. “Maybe it reminded your friend that someone cares about her as a person, rather than just a title.”

Billy felt tears building at the corner of his lids. He tilted his head and blinked until the threat passed. When he looked back over at the president, she was looking at him again, a serious expression on her face. 

“You’ve gotta keep doing that, Billy,” she said, in a hoarse voice that was little more than a whisper. 

He nodded slowly. He wasn’t entirely sure whether she was asking him to keep standing up to her or to keep reminding her she was more than her position but both were promises he was more than willing to keep. For his president and -- he mentally tried on the word she kept using -- his friend. 

His musings on what friendship with the most powerful person left in the world looked like were interrupted by that very woman lifting herself up from her chair and taking his mug from his hand. She laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. 

“Good night, Billy. Don’t stay up too late.” 

He made an assenting noise and the president exited as quietly as she’d come in. He looked at himself in the window one more time and smiled at the young man he saw there. Something had changed today; _he’d_ changed, though how he was smart enough to know he couldn’t quite guess yet. 

“Well,” he muttered under his breath as he stood, “maybe it wasn’t the worst day ever after all.”


End file.
